The notion that musical training can have positive effects on cognitive functions other than music has long been a source of interest. Research first emerged at the beginning of the 20th century. Standardized assessments of IQ and musical ability suggested the two were correlated—and it was thought that participation in musical training could improve IQ.
Recently, research has shifted focus from effects on musical training on global intelligence and instead focuses on benefits to specific skills and tasks in individuals.
Musical training has shown to lead to improvements in a wide variety of different skills, including memory and spatial learning for example. In addition, language skills such as verbal memory, literacy, and verbal intelligence have been shown to strongly benefit from musical training.
